invest in themselves in that way.” She
got married. She wrote a book about
women’s empowerment. She was preparing to spend two years sailing with
her husband—and then discovered she
was pregnant.

Pelletier was shocked. Doctors had
always told her she couldn’t get pregnant; now she was 37 and, clearly, they
had been wrong. To Pelletier, the pregnancy felt fated. But this was not what
her husband had signed up for. “When
someone isn’t up for that, it’s kind of a buzzkill,” she says.

She told her husband she was having the baby. He could stay
or leave, whatever.

Within three years, Pelletier had a toddler, a divorce, and
her dream job. In 2009, she was recruited for a role that
directly addressed what had been tugging at her all these
years: founding CEO of WomanCare Global, a nonproft that
enables sustainable access to contraceptives in the developing world. She couldn’t imagine doing anything else—until
she got a call in 2013 from an executive of a small health care
company called Evomed who was looking for some help
marketing and commercializing a new contraceptive gel
called Amphora. “My frst reaction was, ‘I’m fattered. Now
please lose my number,’” says Pelletier.

But once she started researching Amphora, she couldn’t
stop thinking about it. Evomed was working on products
in dermatology, pain relief, and menstruation, and had
licensed Amphora from Rush University in Chicago.

Amphora was in a Phase 3 clinical trial—generally the last
hurdle before a drug is submitted for FDA approval (see
“How to Survive the FDA,” facing page).

Pelletier agreed to a three-year consulting arrangement inwhich she’d write a business plan for the company, raise money,recruit talent, and prepare Evomed for an IPO. In return,Evomed would allow her to keep her position at WomanCareGlobal. But more important, Pelletier managed to negotiateterms that could help her scale and accelerate her mission:Once Amphora was through the FDA gauntlet, Evomed wouldsell it in North America and Europe, but it would also give it toWomanCare Global to distribute in the developing world on aphilanthropic basis.Eighteen months in, it became clear to Pelletier thatAmphora might never become a blockbuster drug as long as ithad to compete for attention within a small conglomerate thathad a smattering of unrelated products. She didn’t thinkEvomed’s employees had the necessary experience in wom-en’s health, or the ability to work at the pace she demanded.“It was everything and the kitchen sink,” she says of the opera-tion. “No one was focusing on Amphora as the golden child.”She approached the board with an unexpected proposal:spin Amphora out into its own company and formalize therelationship between the new startup and WomanCare Globalas a public-private partnership—with Pelletier running it all.Not everyone liked the idea. Pelletier says one of Evomed’sbankers and its lawyers objected to her proposed dual role.The way Pelletier saw it, “if I were a man and I said to you thatI’d built this amazing nonproft, and then started working toadvance another product that could really help the humancondition, you’d say, ‘Oh, my god, what a great human being,’ ”she says. “But because I’m a woman, you suggest I can’tmanage it all.”Meanwhile, some of her staf at WomanCare Globalweren’t crazy about the proposal either. Pelletier wasequally blunt with them. She pointed out that it was becomingincreasingly difcult for nonprofts to fnd donors. Thereweren’t many private-sector companies willing to partnerwith nonprofts, which they often derided as being flled withbleeding hearts who can’t make good business decisions. “Ifwe can get access to this product that we all believe is gamechanging and we don’t do it, then shame on us,” she said.When skeptics accused Pelletier of going back to the dark side,she reminded them: “More money, more mission. Period.”Pelletier became the founder of Evofem Biosciences,focusing exclusively on Amphora. She persuaded Evomed’soriginal investors to stay on board, took zero employees withher, found new ofce space, and hired her own team, whichincluded commercialization pros from major drug compa-Six people were dead, andamong them were the onlypeople who could help herunderstand the trial on whichAmphora’s fate hinged.

THE RESULT 9. 6Percentage of drugs that enterclinical trials and are eventuallyapproved by the Food and DrugAdministration. SOURCE: AMPLION$648 MI LLION- 2. 6 BILLIONThe estimated cost of bringing a new drug to market.SOURCES: JAMA IN TERN MED, TUFTS CENTER FOR THE S TUDY OF DRUG DEVELOPMEN T10The estimated years it takesfor a drug to get from researchto market. SOURCE: PHRMAINNOVATE

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